Thought exactly the same, pretty shocked to too be fair, would have cost much less if it was done independently. Yeah Ford assess the damage and decide whether it's economical to repair it in, and then authorise it themselves. And as far as i know, the insurance just pick up the bill at the end

Pretty much Authorised Repairers will do an Audatex report, auth if it's under 66% of total value of the car, invoice over a shell to the insurer and the claims support team will issue payment.

Also, doesn't matter if someone dies in the car, can be a cat D still lol.

Depends how they died. Any blood drops in it make it Cat A due to biohazard to potential future ursers.

and to confirm what was already said, CatC means it needs a VIC check done once its repaired for anti fraud measures and as a mini MOT. Any Vosa station can do it, takes about 30 minutes. If you retain a CatC total loss, you'll be issued the paperwork by the insurer, but expect to lose a large chunk for the TL payment that we'd get for scrapping the vehicle.

I think what welsh_gal meant is that if someone came back and stole your car then the insurance company wouldn't pay out

Basically the car is insecure, any theft can be potentially repudiated by the insurer if they find out you've lost a key and not got a locks change. It does vary though - I know we removed the stipulation that in order to fund a lockset there would need to be identifying material on the keyring, as it's an unfair policy term, but some insurers to still stipulate this.

As I've said with all claims questions prior - always let the insurer know the situation and take their advice on the matter. Record every call with them, take names, take numbers, take departments. We record all your calls as per requirements from the FSA so I encourage you to do the same with us.

End of the day, insurers administer policies and should know them off by heart if they're a competent handler.